The BCCI recently announced the India A squad that will travel to Australia to play a number of games in August. No less than a total of ten changes were made to the previous India A squad. The team will play Australia A, South Africa A and Cricket Australia's National Performance Squad in a quadrangular series in Townsville and Mackay starting in August. The then concludes with two four-day games against Australia A in Brisbane in September.
Read: India A squad announced for Australia Tour
The announced squad grabbed a number of headlines for a number of reasons. First, Naman Ojha was named skipper. The wicketkeeper-batsman Naman will have fond memories of a memorable Australia tour with the India A team in 2014 when he had struck scoring 219*, 101* and 110 in three successive innings. Second, because the squad included a total of 9 players from the recently concluded tour of Zimbabwe including the likes of Kedar Jadhav, Axar Patel, Barinder Sran and Dhawal Kulkarni. Three, becuase there were a number of notable absentees who were unlucky to be excluded from the squad.
FULL SQUAD: Naman Ojha (capt), Faiz Fazal, Akhil Herwadkar, Shreyas Iyer, Karun Nair, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Vijay Shankar, Axar Patel, Jayant Yadav, Varun Aaron, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jaydev Unadkat, Barinder Sran, Shahbaz Nadeem, Sanju Samson
Here, we list 5 such cricketers who were unlucky to miss out on making the squad:
1) Unmukt Chand
Unmukt Chand must be wondering what tricks the gods are playing with him. Long heralded as the next star for India, things have just not gone accordingly to plan for the Delhi born cricketer. This exclusion being the latest in a series of disappointments for him. Unmukt, had led India A to victory against Bangladesh A in their last one-day series in September 2015 and would have surely hoped on being on the squad that travels to down under.
It was a disappointing season for the right-handed batsmen in the Ranji Trophy, scoring 439 runs from 7 games at an average under 35. Included in the IPL squad for the Mumbai Indians, he only had one outing, and he failed to trouble the scorers and he walked back for 0. Most recently, he was seen in the Dhaka Premier League, where he impressed for his team Prime Bank. Unmukt will surely be disappointed with this latest setback and hope to come back strong.
2) Suresh Raina
Undoubtedly, the most famous name on the list, is Uttar Pradesh’s captain Suresh Raina. His problems with the short ball notwithstanding, he remains to be one of the most talented players India has produced in recent memory. Having last played a Test match for the national side a good 18 months ago, in early 2015 against Australia, this is surely an indication that the selectors are not thinking about Raina for the longest format of the game.
He captained his side in 4 Ranji Trophy matches in the previous season, scoring a total of 224 runs that included a 50 and a best score of 145*. In the Indian Premier League, Raina was handed the captaincy again, this time for Gujarat Lions. He was impressive as a leader, despite not enjoying his best season with the bat. He still managed 399 runs and was the 10th highest scorer. Plenty to ponder for the stylish left hander, is it curtains for his Test career? Raina is confident on regaining his place in the squad.
3) Ambati Rayudu
Surely, India’s cursed child: Ambati Rayudu. He has had a tumultous International cricket career, always seeming to be on the brink of something, on the brink of settling his place in the Indian squad, but for some reason, inexpicably, something goes wrong for Rayudu, who represents Baroda in domestic cricket. He was in the squad for the recent Tour of Zimbabwe, where he performed with distinction. Yet, he is one of the 6 players from the Tour who didn’t make it to the India A squad.
Whenever given the chance, Rayudu has impressed. In the last year, like Raina, he too played 4 Ranji Trophy matches, scoring 170 runs. He enjoyed a prolific season with the Mumbai Indians, scoring 334 runs despite being shuffled all around the batting order. In Zimbabwe, he scored a 50 in one of the two ODIs he got a chance to bat in. Surely, Rayudu must be wondering what the selectors were thinking when they left him out of the squad.
4) Karn Sharma
The Indian cricket team is crying out for a leg spinner to come take the place vacated by their current coach, Anil Kumble. It’s a spot that has remained vacant for a number of years now, with Piyush Chawla and Amit Mishra among others not able to cement a spot in the squad. Karn Sharma seemed to be the logical choice, to be groomed into the future leg spinner for India. He has been very impressive with the control he showed over his skill lately. In his one Test match, he impressed, picking up 4 wickets.
In a very impressive season with Railways, he picked up 21 wickets which included three 5 wicket hauls, with a best of 7 – 91. In the 7 matches he played this season, he also scored 197 runs with two 50s proving that he can be quite a good all rounder. He was also part of the successful setup with the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL. He merited a place in the India A squad on the back of these performances.
5) Gurkeerat Singh Mann
The 26 year old from Punjab is another who has a good last 12 months and one who merited a place in the India A squad. He can be groomed into a genuine all rounder and has impressed in his previous 3 seasons for Punjab. There is a need to groom all rounders in India as well, with a place up for grabs. There are plenty of players who have put their names in the hat to become India’s next star all rounder, but failed to hold down their spot. Surely, Mann is one of the finer all rounders around.
He only played 4 matches in the Ranji Trophy this season, but was exceptional recording a double-century as well as picking up 11 wickets. He was part of the Kings XI Punjab setup in what was a largely forgettable season for them, but he remains one of the players who walked away with merit from the squad. If not this season, he should be surely included in the plans for the coming few seasons.
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